OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
January 12, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 605-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 18 Stauffer Fint Hall, Lawrence, KS 60055, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions, and on Tuesday and Friday during the final period. Second class students receive $1 for six months; Subscriptions by mail are $1 for six months or $3 for a year; Subscriptions by the county Student subscriptions are $3 a semester paid through the student activity book *POSTMASTER*. Subscription rates vary.
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Hard to stomach
A proposal to return federal food programs to state control would do little but increase the suffering of many people who need extra help to keep food in their stomachs.
In response to the report by commissioners of the Task Force on Food Assistance, Dole issued a statement Monday that said Congress "is not likely to favor" the commission's proposal about state aid.
Fortunately, Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., appears to have effectively quashed a proposal that would allow states to assume control of food-aid programs and create their own food assistance programs with federal money.
His comments were made amid a mounting chorus of criticism of the commission's report. Among the most severe critics of the report was Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who said, "It is a transparent
cover-up of the serious and worsening problem of hunger in America. In effect, this commission says to the hungry: 'Let them eat block grants.' "
The commission's proposal would turn back the clock to the dangerous days when assistance to the poor depended solely on the whims of individual states.
Opponents of the recommendations argued that the proposal would allow states to funnel more money to middle-class families. Such action would leave only the soup lines for poor women and children, who have little political clout.
The commission did suggest a program that would make it easier for some people to become eligible for food stamps.
Although some of the group's proposals are laudable, its recommendation to put food aid under control of states would hurt hungry people in America.
Jackson's risk pays off
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has given us something to look for in presidential candidates. By obtaining the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman, Jackson proved not only his ability to negotiate but his willingness to take risks. Jackson knew that many eyes would be on him as he set out on his mission. He was undeterred by the thought that he might fail.
With little cooperation from the White House, Jackson headed to Damascus. He said that whoever had the courage to act should act. It was the combination of his courage and negotiating ability that brought Goodman home. Both traits are useful for a president to have.
American voters cast their ballots on.
Jackson has shown courage in the past with leadership roles in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and with Operation PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity. But long past achievements should not be all that
Records are important in learning about a candidate. But it is also important to pay attention to candidates' endeavors during the election year. Many candidates are likely to go for sure-shot successes. Positions are taken that appeal to large numbers of voters or special interest groups.
But chalk this one up to Jackson. His success in Syria came with no guarantees. The chances for failure were as great as his chances for success.
As the election year continues, other candidates will try to distinguish themselves from the pack.
The Syrian trip was a success for Jackson. But it is just as important to remember the mission for what it showed about a presidential candidate during an election year. Jackson's courage to negotiate despite the risk of failure distinguishes him.
Thousands of people disappeared in Argentina during the 1970s. Many of the missing are feared dead.
Improve human rights
Tuesday, Reynaldo Bignone, the former president who guided Argentina to democratic elections last year, was arrested after an investigation into the disappearance of two communist army recruits.
The recruits were arrested at the War College in 1976 — when Bignone was the college's director — and then later disappeared.
Exactly what may come of Bignone's arrest is not yet clear. He is the only military ex-president who was exempted by President Raul Alfonsin from a court-martial
Alfonsin's civilian government took over Dec. 10. Bignone was being held at army headquarters, where he will be notified of where to report to next.
A court in Argentina has ruled in a preliminary decision in the case that "the use of human and material resources of the War College for an anti-subversive war, in a partial way, was outside legal orthodoxy."
Well, isn't that something. One might want to ask the people who were arrested for their opinions, but one can't because many of them have disappeared.
Prompt prosecution would show other countries that Argentina thinks human rights are important. Human rights have received little support of late, and some changes toward greater support of them are desperately needed.
We can only hope that the present civilian government will work to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
LETTERS POLICY
The University Daily Kansas welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 300 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and home town or faculty or staff individuals. The Kansas University individual and groups to submit guest columns, Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kanan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kanan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Down-starers avoid life's reality
The top of the human head is not usually an especially riveting sight. In fact, one could go so far as to say it is decidedly uninteresting. But for some reason, the top of the head is a more important feature in Kansas, even for those whose height does not afford them a more-thanordinary vantage point.
This too frequent view of the top of the head results, it seems, from a tendency shared by most KU students to stare in a downward direction as they walk the scenic streets of the campus.
The phenomenon of staring down could be attributed to some sort of regression. It might be a return to a childhood fascination with deep emotions, or that probably do not exist on a campus as well maintained as that of KU.
Or perhaps students engage in a continual staring contest with the eyelens in their top-siders. Or they may simply find that memorizing the patterns on the toes of their boots is preferable to — oh, horrors! — looking somebody straight in the eye.
Why do students refuse to look at one another? A kind person might say it is because of the well-documented syndrome of postadolescent shyness that holds most college students in a vise grip. A less kind person, however, would say that students do not look at one another on campus because they simply do not have any interest in the lives of people with whom they are not formally acquainted.
The down-stairers, although they may not know it, are suffering. They try to protect themselves and diversity that encounters those who choose to actually look at people
But the presence of the occasional, stray up-looker gives some compensation to those who dare take the optical plunge and make eye contact. As a closest up-looker they've grinned at the concentration with which the down-stars will avoid eye contact at any cost.
instead of just passing them by,
They are losing the warm feeling
that comes from seeing a smiling
face in a sea of 25,000 strangers.
I have seen the fervent glances that dart away just as one is about to catch a full gaze — as rare as a summer firefly in a Mason jar 1
HELAINE KASKEL
Staff Columnist
have secretly enjoyed the slapstick comedy of students who literally collide with each other in their quest to avoid even the briefest of mutual looks, and then continue to stare at the ground as fallen books and papers are retrieved.
In all fairness, it must be admitted that down-stars enjoy do some benefits. Consider the efficiency of the down-starners as they scurry to class unhindered by the shamuel waste of valuable academic time results from saying "Hit" to people who have nothing to do with them.
A good case could be made for the time and effort saved by those who avoid eye contact on the streets,
thus saving enormous amounts of energy for pursuits more valuable to society as a whole. And another priceless benefit: students who claim that what is going on around them is 'natural' by it, whatever "it" may be.
Thus, mental stability rewards those down stairers who will not stop at a student rally, or loiter for a moment in a crowd gathered around the latest evangelist who may have the colossal nerve to ruffle feathers necessary to shield against that materially impossible occurrences: wasteful, time-consuming, bothersome, unavoidable, direct eye contact.
But every black cloud does have its proverbial silver lining, and some redeeming worth can be found in the habits of typical down-stars. Indeed, the down-stars have given the look-upers a chance to gain some invaluable information: What better way to study the intricacies of the campus couffure? — everything from French braids to the outraged bristle of a dyed-blue mohawk.
Despite this silver lining,
however, the question remains:
What monster lurks in the eyes of
KU students? Is the idea of direct
eye contact, or — perish the
thought! — the audacity of a wink
enough to wreak havoc upon the
student psyche?
Fearing this was the case, the up-looker in me spent a day on campus just looking, often past the point of "politeness." My friend, but direct, stares were met by quickly averted glances, and the snide expressions of those too insecure to acknowledge the existence of another student — and a stranger to boot!
But once, just once, my stare was met by a smile, and a brief, but unmistakable, wink.
Mildly surprised, but also encouraged, I continued to meet the eyes of those who walked past me. I was still ignored by most, or avoided, but occasionally my gaze was met by that of a smiling face.
Could it be that the long-
oppressed minority of uplookers
was at last venturing out of the
closet? Had the conspiracy to
abolish eye contact on America's
campuses at last been overthrown?
A glance turned into two, then three ... the budding of a renascence in eye contact was taking place before my hungry eyes! I was swept away by an inundation of rises and an abundance of Ultra-Lash mascarara!
A bit suspicious of this sudden reversal in patterns of socialization among college students, I proceeded with a remnant of skeptical caution. Was all this eye contact really a good thing? Consider the possibility of eye contact becoming a trend, the need for a keen sense of the fine art of memorizing the details of their footwear would forever be lost to civilization.
But if this is the cost of a potential revolution in eye contact, I am willing to pay the price. All historic mass movements are effective only at great sacrifice to society. And when eye contact — a vantage leaf in communication — is established, he will help Her Heal even said to a stranger, may soon follow. Open your eyes and watch for it.
President is strong bet in '84 race
WASHINGTON — Despite the growing war clouds over Lebanon and a rising and vocal disaffection among blacks and women, Ronald Reagan enters a war of strong favorite for re-election.
Political winds shift fast in an election year, as incumbents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter discovered when they sought four more years in 1970 and 1980. But the change was personal popularity of Reagan.
The president has not yet said whether he will seek re-election, but a full-scale campaign committee has set up business in Washington and almost everyone close to the president is predicating disappointment in late January after his State of the Union message.
Reagan's popularity comes despite high criticism that has left his image untarnished among Republicans. The American voters. The conservative right, which for years formed Reagan's power base, is on the verge of abandoning him and in 2008 billion-plus budget deficits.
The re-election of Reagan would leave an inprint on the nation that would last far longer than the end of a second term in 1988. Already the most conservative administration of the century has enacted programs that would take a liberal president years to undo — if that president wanted to or could.
The conservative agenda that Reagan has failed to push through Congress, including issues relating to abortion, school desegregation and crime and the death penalty, could be enacted by the high court.
Before a second-term President Reagan left office in 1985, five justices of the Supreme Court, including two liberals and two swing votes, would reach the age of 80. That means Reagan apointees would likely be in control for the rest of the century.
Reagan's approval rating in national polls soars well above that for any incumbent in recent years after three years in office. Most surprising to his critics is the economy. Inflation is double digits in the Carter years has been cut nearly in half.
Unemployment that stubbornly stayed high in Reagan's first two years has suddenly declined rapidly, and interest rates remain high. There is intense pressure on Reagan for a tax
Democrats led by House Speaker Thomas O'Neill call him the "crueest" president in the century because they say his budget cuts have brought the number of people living in poverty to new highs while his tax cuts benefit only the rich.
increase to lower deficits and thus interest rates.
One reason for Reagan's high ratings in the polls is the current state of the battle for the Democratic nomination. Many Democrats, while opposed to Reagan, admit they find nothing
CLAY F. RICHARDS United Press International
United Press International
thrilling in their own field of eight candidates.
Walter Mondale, the consistent leader in the battle for the nomination and who has the most money and best organization, carries the burden of having been Carter's vice president.
Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, though lackluster, is, in most polls, the alternative to Mondale. But some Democrats aren't sure they want a Democrat who voted for much of Reagan's economic program.
The rest of the field — Sens.
Alan Cranston, Gary Hart, Ernest Hollings, former Gov. Reubin Askew, former Sen George McGovern and Jesse Jackson — trail far behind in the polls. On election night, he was the first serious black candidate (or the Democratic nomination).
The Jackson candidacy will bring thousands of blacks into the election process for the first time. This and a heightened effort by women alienated by the Reagan administration offer the Democrats their best hope of recapturing the White House.
The growing American involvement in Lebanon, and the potential for increased involvement in Latin America poses a threat to Reagan's government policy, especially the invasion of Grenada, has won the administration high marks.
But the American electorate is gun-shy of another Vietnam.
To the editor:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Nuclear risks too great
To the editor:
The November 1983 issue of Campus Comments carried a note, written by Ed Dutton, concerning the nuclear fuel cycle. It claimed the latest Nuclear Regulatory Commission study estimates that there is a 1-in-50 chance for a "worse-case" event at a U.S. nuclear reactor to occur in 17 years.
No society would or should accept such a risk. The author of the item, pledged to be a "responsible critic," is therefore under obligation to take action in such a monstrous claim before it appears in paper.
Ed Dutton's statement is patently false. The author may simply have copied it from the Washington Post, Nov. 1, but that does not exonerate him. The NRC's 1975 study claims 3,300 earlyborn in a "worse-case" estimate, to which assigns a one-in-10 million-reactor-years probability.
Regarding my recent guest editorial with the lame headline "Opposing Views":
The new (Fall 1982) Sanda Lab report alluded to did contain a sensitivity analysis, feeding in
numerous hypothetical and outrageous assumptions to test the ranges of the program. However, the conclusion of the study confirmed the results of the 1975 report and does not even remotely resemble Ed Dutton's apocalypse. In evaluating chances for a large accident, it is well to bear in mind that the designation "worst possible case" is logically meaningless.
begins it. Naming one is a "still worse" case!
What is the probability of large dam failures in the U.S., especially in earthquake-prone, crowded states such as California? Has Ed Dutton investigated that?
Leslie Dienes professor of geography
the critical standards Campus Comments set for itself would also prohibit the not-so-suble mixing of nuclear reactors and missiles in the same paragraph since the two have nothing to do with each other. Conventional missiles and bombs used are tormented by the destructive effect of a nuclear reactor. And in case of a nuclear war, damage to reactors will be the last of anyone's worries.
Writer says paper unfair
Do you always treat your guests with such indifference?
After all, I went through great trouble, driving over six hours, so you could take my picture and maintain the stylish look of your paper.
4
On the other hand, you exurgated my editorial of any comprehensibility. Tossing half of a long essay into the "round file" isn't such a crime, but couldn't you have given me a call? Deleating the triumphant "Long live Eros!" was too much, displaying literary clumsiness at best.
Still, dear reader, never mind, for this letter, once printed, will probably be edited of its meaning, too.
Cary DuBois Wheatland, Mo., graduate